Live instruction card!

[bhille]

In the meantime, find the DOS VESA driver for your laptop... you'll need it...

Would installing Windows 98SE and running in DOS mode work, or do I need real DOS?

Brian

[Chris]

I'm writing this around real DOS... I don't know how well a DOS mode would work.

--Chris

[bhille]

Wow, it's been awhile since I used DOS.  I have a question now that I've ripped apart my poor laptop.  I'm using a Toshiba Satellite Pro 420CDT with 24MB of RAM.  Do I need a DOS VESA driver?  It looks like it's built into the video card BIOS.  Is that all I need?

SUGGESTIONS:
1.  Please don't hardcode the resolution.  This laptops native display is 800x600.  It will display 640x480, but in a small window.  I would like to use the full screen.  Obviously, beggers can't be choosers, but if it isn't that hard to let us pick the resolutions...

2.  I thought an earlier post mentioned connecting via a serial port.  Would it work faster/better if it connected via the parallel port like the old laplink or interlink?

Brian

[Chris]

Wow, it's been awhile since I used DOS.  I have a question now that I've ripped apart my poor laptop.  I'm using a Toshiba Satellite Pro 420CDT with 24MB of RAM.  Do I need a DOS VESA driver?  It looks like it's built into the video card BIOS.  Is that all I need?

As long as VESA is available, you're fine...

SUGGESTIONS:
1.  Please don't hardcode the resolution.  This laptops native display is 800x600.  It will display 640x480, but in a small window.  I would like to use the full screen.  Obviously, beggers can't be choosers, but if it isn't that hard to let us pick the resolutions...

The problem isn't the display code, it's the instruction images.  Scaled images look awful on laptop screens, so it's likely that different sets of images would have to be created for different resolutions.

2.  I thought an earlier post mentioned connecting via a serial port.  Would it work faster/better if it connected via the parallel port like the old laplink or interlink?

It would, but I know how to write to a serial prt... I don't know how to do two-way communication over parallel. I am planning to look into it, though, as I have a couple of parallel PCAnywhere cabes that would be perfect for this, and I'd rather not use up a serial port that could be servicing a spinner or trackball.

[JoeB]

Folks, there's a much easier thing that you can do, and it has been applied in other applications..

buy an LCD screen (not the video type, but rather one like your digital watch) and hack it.

Many people in the past have used it to create anything from something they put in their 5.25 drive slot for info like MB temperature, etc to put in their car as an interface to a PC in the trunk that acts like an MP3 player and this screen scrolled the name of the song.

Well, the serial conneciton and info is all over the web, all you need to do is write an interface the sends this info to the serial port, and it'll output it on the LCD screen!  Some have multiple lines, some will scroll back and forth.. all up to you!

[eightbit]

Well, the serial conneciton and info is all over the web, all you need to do is write an interface the sends this info to the serial port, and it'll output it on the LCD screen!  Some have multiple lines, some will scroll back and forth.. all up to you!

Yeah but we're looking for images here more than text. I think the theory is display a picture of the actual game control panel then show a picture next it with your game panel. Then some text with game instructions.

[Chris]

Joe,

The hard part isn't doing the display; I could do that in 20 minutes and be done with it.  The hard part, if this is to be a public release and not just a one-off, is not requiring each cab owner to create an image of his control panel for every single game! If we can create some sort of workable format for this that reads your controls from MAME's config files, we should be able to build up a library of instruction files, similar to the way artwork files are handled now.  Once we can make that work, it can be displayed in frontends, on separate screens, on separate computers, whatever.  

--Chris

[MinerAl]

If putting together a custom graphic each time is going to be a p.i.t.a. just make an ordered list next to a pre-labeled standard picture.  Something like this:

1: 4-way joystick 2: Fire 3: Thrust 4: unused 5: unused 6: unused 7: unused

Then all each user would have to do is make one labeled illustration of their layout, and maybe modify a simple configuration text file to decide which controls never to show... something like:

...
PlayerOneButton5 (show)
PlayerOneButton6 (hide)
PlayerOneButton7 (hide)
PlayerOneButton8 (hide)
PlayerOneTrackBall1 (show)
...

Or something else less difficult than putting the words directly on the graphic itself.

Forgive me if you've already thought of all this... I'm excited by this idea, even though I'll have to design a whole new cab to use it!

Thanks.

Al

[Chris]

Well, if you provide the system with the coordinates of where the labels should go (which you should only have to do once), then the labels can go right on the CP image.   MAME already know wher your buttons are mapped; what it doesn't know except in some cases is what those buttons represent.

What's needed is a comprehensive list of what buttons do what, and such a list has already been discussed among front end developers.  With that list, plus MAME.CFG and the game's CFG, plus a description of the control panel, the system should automatically be able to build the CP image for any game.  This would go in the bottom or right half of the laptop screen; in the top or left half would go an image of the instruction card from the original game (it would probably have to be rearranged to fit the area) showing the actual gameplay instructions.

--Chris

[eightbit]

Then all each user would have to do is make one labeled illustration of their layout, and maybe modify a simple configuration text file to decide which controls never to show...

That is pretty sweet. So is there anything those of us that aren't programmers can do to help?

[Howard_Casto]

Well, the serial conneciton and info is all over the web, all you need to do is write an interface the sends this info to the serial port, and it'll output it on the LCD screen!  Some have multiple lines, some will scroll back and forth.. all up to you!

Yeah but we're looking for images here more than text. I think the theory is display a picture of the actual game control panel then show a picture next it with your game panel. Then some text with game instructions.

Exactly.... lcd instructions have been available for fe's for ages but they are so ugly that nobody uses them....  Check the source of aos and you'll see what I mean.

Oh and chris, there is already a project that is geared towards generating cp layouts, so you are wasting you time on that one.  Come help us with the controls.dat instead. Which reminds me.... I need to make an announcment.  

Also for different screen resolutions imho the proper thing to do would be to scale the image prior to sending it.... In other words generate it in the resolution that it's going to be sent on the main pc's end and then send that graphic.  Scaling shouldn't be necessary.  

I can make a program that dynamically makes cp layouts for you at any resolution for that matter. That's part of the goals of the controls.dat project and I already have a rather crude, hardcoded generator working.  All you need to worry about is sending the generated image.  

[Chris]

I can make a program that dynamically makes cp layouts for you at any resolution for that matter. That's part of the goals of the controls.dat project and I already have a rather crude, hardcoded generator working.  All you need to worry about is sending the generated image.  

Scaling the CP image also isn't really the problem... but scaling the scans of the original instruction cards could make them illegible on some laptop screens.

Is there a particular home for the controls.dat project?

--Chris

[Chris]

Bummer!

After ripping apart my cabinet, I've discovered that the laptop screen with its supporting hardware won't fit into the space below the monitor after all...